Femur splint



Patented Mar. 13, 1928.

' UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

I JAMES H NiIICHOL SON AND WILLIAM D. GAVIN,- OF MADISON, GEORGIA.

FEMUR SPLINT.

Application filed Kay 31, 1927. Serial No. 195,470.

()ur invention relates to-a femur splint to properly locate and hold inplace the upper and lower fragments of a fractured femur. It is wellknown in this art that when the femur is fractured,'it has a tendency tocontract and thus displace one fragment relative to the other, and it isone object of our invention to properly locate the fracture bystretching the leg untilthe' fragments are properly located and thenholding them in their properly located position.

' Another objectof the invention is to produce a splint that will fitdifferent sized legs;

that will be sanitary in all its parts and particularly in the partsthat are pushed through the skin and soft tissues into the bone.

With these and other objects in view which will appear as, thedescription proceeds we will now describe our invention in connectionwith the attached drawings in which:

Fi re 1 is a top plan view of our device attac ed to a fractured femur,the soft tissues of the leg being omitted.

gig. 2 is a side elevation of our splint; an

Fig. '3 is a sectional view taken through the splint and the leg towhich it is attached.

Referring to the details of the drawing 1 and 2 represent the up er andlower frag- --ments respectively of a femur fractured at 3.

In order to lengthen the femur, we provide side bars 4 and 5, the. bar 4havin integral cradle arms 6 and 7 reduced at t eir ends and the bar 5likewise have the integral cradle arms 8 and 9 with similarly reducedends which overlap and a slot 10 is provided in each of said cradle armsthrough which extend set screws.

sible cradle arms is that the cradle made by the side bars and arms maybe extended to fit any size leg by loosenin the set screws 11 and 12,adjusting the era e arms to fit the leg and then ti htening up the setscrews.

A similar sp int composed of side arms 4, 5 and similar integral cradlearms 6','7', 8 and 9'. The bars 4-4 and 55' are hinged to each other byhinges 14.

The bars 4, ,5, 4', 5 have screw threaded openings 16-16 through whichextend screws 17-17, 18-18, 17'-17', 18', 18, and the ends of the bars Hand 5'-5 have lugs 19-19 with a hole extending through the lugs andcotter pins 20-20 extending The object of these exten-:

through said holes to maintain the side bars in straight lines.

To apply the splint to a femur, the side bars 4 and 5 and the cradlearms 6, 7-, 8 and 9 are fitted over the leg and adjusted to fit the legand the set screws on the extreme right cradle arm are tightened to holdthe splint in position at one end. hand steelpins 17-18 are insertedthrough the fleshy tissues of the leg and into the bone. If then the leghas been shortened, the amount of shortening is ascertained by measuringthe other leg of the patient, to find out how much the fractured leg isto be lengthened. Having ascertained this, the hinged side bars are benton the hinges 14 a sufiicient amount so that when they are straightened,they will lengthen the fractured ortions of the femur. This isaccomplishe by then fitting the left hand part of the splint over theleg and screwing in the extreme left hand pins 1718 through the fleshytissue and into the femur and then pressure put upon the hinged arms atthe hinged portion to cause the side bars to straighten to the positionshown in Fig. 2 and if desirable, additional screw pins may be forcedthrough the fleshytissue into the femur on either side of the fracture.

' If there is danger'of injury to the arteries of the thigh by thrustingthe pin through the tissues, especially on the inner side of the leg,the .tlssues may be opened to the bone and the pins passed through theopen- 1n lhis method of reduction and splinting works directly with thebone,'and the muscles and soft tissues are not relied on to assist inmaintaining complete reduction and holding in true apposition the twofragments of the femur. By the use of the pins penetrating the bone andthe hinged splints, enough;

The right leverage can be had to reduce any ordinary fracture of thefemur. When the splint is properly applied, there can be no shorteningof the limb and the splints may be taken apart for sterilization, and bytheir adjustable features they-can be made to fit any sized leg and,furthermore, to fit different portions of the same leg.

What we claim as new is: 1. A femur splint comprising side barsconnected by cradle arms, the side bars on I oppositesides of the femurbeing hinged at their meeting ends, and means passing through the sidebars and adapted to penefemur, and means between the hinged sections tohold the side bars in alinement after the splint has been applied to thefemur.

4. A splint comprising two sections hinged together at their meetingends, each section comprising side bars and semi-circular cradle arms,said side bars having holes therethrough and pins adapted to be passedthrough said holes and to penetrate opposite fragments of a femur.

In testimony whereof we aflix our signatures.

JAMES H. NICHOLSON. WILLIAM D. GAVIN.

